St Joseph's Catholic Primary School Wandal Newsletter

Our Diocesan Director, Miss Leesa Jeffcoat, visited St Joseph’s today. During her visit, I discussed the teaching and learning that is happening at Wandal. Leesa visited the Year 4 classroom after they wrote her a letter convincing her to come to their class using their persuasive writing skills. During her time in Year 4 Gold, Leesa learned about the Decalogue, which translates into 'ten divine words' from God. These refer to what we know as the Ten Commandments. The Year 4 class explained how challenging making good choices, and following rules can be. Miss Jeffcoat also visited Year 1 while they were in Mathematics rotations. The children shared their maths games and learning intentions with Miss Jeffcoat.

Your support when responding to calls for picking up students throughout the day is greatly appreciated. Thank you for being cautious and not sending children with mild symptoms to school. As we progress through these stages of COVID-19, we will continue to keep the notifications appearing in the newsletter if there are positive cases in our school.

As the restrictions have lifted, families are welcome into the school, and I look forward to gathering next Monday as we return to having whole school assemblies. Monday assembly will be held on the basketball court and commence promptly once all children are seated after the 8:35 am bell. Monday assembly allows our school to gather as one for prayer and the delivery of school messages. As this will be the first assembly for the year, we will be addressing expectations with the students regarding behaviour, sun safety and uniforms.

Friday Prayer Assemblies will recommence next term. The classes leading these assemblies will be notified in the weekly parent emails and the newsletter.

If families are attending the school for assemblies or meeting with staff, please consider physically distancing where possible. If you are experiencing any contagious symptoms, please keep our community safe by remaining away from the school.

This week, I am thankful for the virtue of determination. We focus our energy on purpose and persevere until we meet our goal with determination.  This is the virtue that keeps us going when difficulties arise, and things don’t come easy. There is always another path to try when one has roadblocks.

I am thankful for the gift of determination. It keeps me from giving up, knowing I will be successful and achieve the goals I set for myself.

Bernadette Brennan

St Joseph is an excellent model for young men and women today. He had a deep faith and trusted in God’s plan for his life, even though he didn’t know its deepest purpose.

Saint Joseph was a just man, a tireless worker, the upright guardian of those entrusted to his care. May he always guard, protect and enlighten families.

Pope John Paul 11

Jesus looked up at him. No words needed to be spoken. In the silence, they understood one another. As Jesus waited for Joseph’s approval, Joseph chuckled to himself. He didn’t doubt that one day the student would surpass the teacher! It was clear the skills of Joseph’s trade came naturally to Jesus.

“Your mother will love it!” Joseph said with great affection. As the earthy smell of wood shavings filled the air, Joseph thought about how much he treasured the simple time they got to spend working alongside one another, perhaps even more now. Was it already a month ago when he and Mary had been filled with such great anxiety as they searched for Jesus in Jerusalem? 

Joseph’s heart tightened as he thought about the fear he and Mary had felt when they couldn’t find him. A sudden stab of pain shot through Joseph’s finger.

“I’m so sorry, Father!” Jesus exclaimed. “Don’t worry, Jesus . . . my finger and the hammer are not strangers.  They have met many times before!” Joseph laughed and tousled Jesus’ hair. “But what do you say we take a break for lunch?”

by Maria LaVoy, From Living Sparks of God: Stories of Saints for Kids to Color

As a result of the generous support for our Shrove Tuesday, (Pancake Day) our school community has raised an incredible $170. We will continue to collect donations for Project Compassion until the end of the term and the Lenten season.

 In Lent we are asked to make some choices. We prepare for Easter by praying and doing good works. What are some of the things you would like to do in these next weeks of Lent? That's what Lent is always about –a yearly season where we are encouraged to keep embracing life and live it to the full.

This Friday our whole school will participate in a series of in-class learning experiences, with a focus on learning strategies that address bullying. As a school, students will be reminded of our Mission Statement which forms our school expectations of expected behaviours.  If we focus on our four school expectations -serve God, seek justice, accept responsibility and strive for excellence, we really are actively choosing ‘Against Bullying’ every day at St Joseph’s Wandal.  Please access the link https://bullyingnoway.gov.au/preventing-bullying/national-day-of-action-against-bullying-and-violence for a number of free resources pertaining to this year’s theme “Kindness Culture, it starts with you” 

Are We There Yet?

Our favourite book in Year 1 this month has been “Are We There Yet?” by Alison Lester. The year that Grace turned eight, her family, Mum, Dad, Grace, Luke and Billy travelled in a caravan around Australia.

We learnt about lots of places in Australia. We liked seeing different landscapes such as the coral reef. We enjoyed the dramatic parts of the story such as when they saw crocodiles or when Mum was too scared to look over the cliff. The whales and other animals were amazing. It was very funny when Mum was banned from the water slide for being too dangerous.

This book would be good for Mums and Dads to read to their children, or for teachers to read to their classes. You may enjoy looking at photos of the places in the story by Googling them.